Editing Jap (section)

{{Short description|English pejorative, racial slur}}
{{About|the abbreviation/slur|other uses|JAP (disambiguation)}}
{{italic title}}
[[File:JAPS QUIT.jpg|thumb|Headlines announcing [[Surrender of Japan|Japan's surrender]] in [[World War II]]]]
'''''Jap''''' is an English abbreviation of the word "[[Japanese people|Japanese]]". In the United States, some [[Japanese Americans]] have come to find the term offensive because of the [[Internment of Japanese Americans|internment they suffered]] during [[World War II]]. Before the [[attack on Pearl Harbor]], ''Jap'' was not considered primarily offensive. However, following the bombing of Pearl Harbor and the [[Japanese declaration of war on the United States and the British Empire|Japanese declaration of war on the US]], the term began to be used derogatorily, as [[anti-Japanese sentiment]] increased.<ref name="Fussell">[[Paul Fussell]], ''Wartime:  Understanding and Behavior in the Second World War,'' Oxford University Press, 1989, p. 117.</ref> During the war, signs using the epithet, with messages such as "No Japs Allowed", were hung in some businesses, with service denied to customers of Japanese descent.<ref name="jref">Gil Asakawa, [http://www.jref.com/nikkeiview/jap.shtml Nikkeiview: Jap], July 18, 2004.</ref>